August Rauber

Who was August Rauber?

August Rauber was a German anatomist and embryologist born in Obermoschel in the Rhineland-Palatinate.

Rauber was born the fourth of five children to Stephan Rauber and Rosalie née Oberlé. He studied medicine in Munich, obtaining his doctorate in 1865. In 1869 he received his habilitation, and in 1872 was a dissector at the University of Basel. Afterwards he worked as an assistant to anatomist Wilhelm His at the University of Leipzig. In 1886 he became a professor of anatomy and head of the anatomical institute at the University of Dorpat.

In his studies involving the embryonic development of birds and mammals, Rauber is credited with incorporating embryology and histology with phylogenetic analysis. The eponymous "Rauber's layer" bears his name, being defined as a trophoblastic membrane over the embryonic disk in developing animals.